Jaguar Land Rover to axe 200 jobs from west Midlands plant amid stalling UK production

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is to cut more jobs at its Solihull plant as a result of moving the production of its Discovery model out of the UK.

The company, which already announced that 1,000 agency workers would be laid off in April, said today around 200 more people working at its Lode Land site in the West Midlands would lose their jobs.

The losses are a direct result of the company’s decision to stop producing the Discovery at the site, moving it to Slovakia early in the new year.

Slovakia factory boss Alexander Wortberg said in October it will be producing 100,000 cars a year in the new plant by 2020.

The news comes amid figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), showing UK car production declined for the fifth consecutive month in October.

The company, whose China sales halved in September, will also send a third of its staff home early for Christmas from its engine plant in Wolverhampton. The closure will now last three weeks rather than just one week.

A spokesperson for JLR said: “Today, we have confirmed that Solihull will make some changes to its production schedule to reflect fluctuating demand globally and forthcoming infrastructure works resulting from the cessation of Discovery which will move, as already confirmed, to Slovakia early in the new year. Customer orders will not be impacted by any of these changes.

“The external environment remains challenging and the company is taking decisive actions to achieve the necessary operational efficiencies to safeguard long-term success.

“To deliver a growing range of electrified cars for our customers we are making tough decisions, but the transformation of the business relies on this.”

It said it continues to invest heavily in its UK manufacturing operations, with money recently committed to the Solihull plant to build the next generation of Range Rover.

The company has already shifted workers at its plant in Castle Bromwich to a three-day week because of “continuing headwinds impacting the car industry”.

In September, the boss of the UK’s largest car maker warned that a bad Brexit deal could lead to tens of thousands of job losses.

Shares rose 1.89 per cent on the news of today's cuts.